February 1: New Obsession, Norbert Blei, "Mill in Winter"

I have sort of gotten into the painter Andrew Wyeth in the last couple of weeks.  I've always loved his work, but I'd never really known much about his life beyond the Helga controversy.  So, when I found a series of found poems by Norbert Blei based on the paintings and journals of Wyeth, I couldn't resist sharing a few of them this week.

The words are Wyeth's.  The feelings and ideas are Wyeth's.  The arrangement is Blei's, and, I think, he really captures the spirit of Andrew Wyeth's works.  Spare.  Dreamy.  Crystalline.  Earthy.  Magical.

Saint Marty has a new obsession.

Mill in Winter

by:  Norbert Blei

I'm intrigued by the first moments
of a snowstorm.  There's danger in it.
You never know how it's going to turn out.
I love the bleakness of winter and snow,
get a thrill out of the chill.  God, I've frozen
my ass off painting snow scenes!
I'm taken by the bleakness--
not the melancholy feeling of snow.
My winter scenes . . . they're not romantic.
No!
They capture that marvelous, lonely bleakness--
the quiet, the chill reality of winter.